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Monday, August 24, 2009

The Clackamas County Fair went well. Johann behaved himself, surprisingly. :-) There was a very good representation of Katahdins for the size of the sheep show. It was good to ease into it with just Johann...hopefully I'll get my registrations before the State Fair this Thursday! I'm still waiting!

I hope to do the Clackamas Fair again next year with some more sheep.

Can't wait until this Thursday when, Lord willing, will be bring in five sheep. (I think that's all we can fit in our mini van...We need a pickup!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)I'll be sure to do a good post with plenty of pics after the fair.

Monday, August 10, 2009

This morning I finally had to get down to it and figure out who goes where for breeding season! It might sound simple, but it wasn't...to find a good pasture with a good sized pen for the right group of animals and to keep the goats and sheep separate and everything..bleh...

Well I ended up taking all the ewe lambs, Aravis, and Parsley and putting them in with our two does that are still milking, Penny and Ella, and our market wether, Joash. I'll have to put Penny and Ella in small pens at night. Ella's such a boss that she rarely will let anyone eat. I have two mangers for these guys, but there isn't room for all the ewes at one well Ella hogs the other.

Penny is waiting to be put with the buck until she puts some more fat on her and Ella is waiting so that my yearlings can eat all they want well they are in with Mr. Monkey. Aravis and Parsley are waiting until the first week of September to visit the ram so I at least have a chance of having some Jr. ewes for the fair next year. All the lambs will be waiting until 2010 sometime to be bred.

One of the annoying things about this pen is that it will be harder to catch ewe lambs in to try and get them halter ready for fair. Although both of my yearlings are pretty rescind, especially Parsley who walks very well by color, halter, or my hand around her head, I've only been able to work with one of the ewe lambs I'm taking and she is bucking bronco!

Louis, our seven year old Katahdin patriarch, and the ram lambs got banished from their lush pasture to a smaller paddock were I'm going to have to supplement them with hay and alfalfa. I won't be using Louis this year and I'm just waiting for the ram lambs to get big enough to butcher.

All the yearling does- Virginia, Gweny, Sophie, and Sally, are now with Rhudi (aka Mr. Monkey) in our biggest pen and pasture. Rhudi is seven months old now so hopefully he will get interested in the girls soon. So fare all they are interested in is quarreling over food! :-)

Johann, our new KRK, seven month old ram, is now with our other ewes- Amelia, Celia, Rosalind, and Rue. I also have our little Boer buckling in there that I'm trying to sell. They have the nicest pasture and two mangers...one in the creep feeder and one in the barn. Unfortunately Johann won't stand up to the ewes yet so he just sat in the paddock balling. He'll get over it. He's just a bit spoiled...

Thank you to the ewes ingenuity the creep feeder is not accessible to all parties. They've broken of three of the mettle bars! And then they took out the wood gate type thing and we found it in the pasture. They are so big and will do anything for more alfalfa!

All my homegrown ewes know the ropes, but Celia and Rosalind are quite the trouble makers. (This is were the rodeo part comes in.) It took quite a bit of shuffling and time to get the ewes and last lambs separated. I finally got all the little ones in an inside pen...now all I needed to do is put all the ewes back were they came from. First Celia took them all speeding up the gravel hill. After a lot of sneaking I was able to bring them back, but this time they headed the other direction on our road...towards the highway!!! For a moment I thought they really were going to go strait onto it, but they hesitated we finally got them back...only for them to get around the trailer and jump over the hitch between the trailer and the van!!! AND THEN go charging towards the highway again! We finally got them back and into their pen. They should be tired today. We really need to fence in our barn. :-P

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

These are the two new, orphan lambs. Unfortunately the light was dying, so the picture isn't to wonderful. One lovely ewe and ram, Westlock and Mercy. Thank you Karen of KRK!

Some of our lambs. The two larger ones in front are our new lambs, Ophelia and Juliet. They are out of March triplets.

And this is dear Johann. :-) Our ram lamb from KRK.

And this is my sweet late April girl, Hagar. She really is gorgeous. Very long and deep and CUTE!

And these are two of the Boer girls...just had to stick some goats in the post.

This is Dotty, my only January lamb left on the farm. We will be keeping her for our breeding program. I wish she was a little longer, but she's a nice big girl and I love her markings! She'll be going to the state fair with us.

And this is two of my older girls. Celia, the one standing is our new 7 year old ewe and Aravis, my matriarch is the ewe sitting. They certainly have the spots! I'm still trying to get Celia to hold her weight better, but she's improving.

This is Parsley, an Aravis yearling. She had lovely little Hagar and Tamar in April.

This is my new 6 year old KRK ewe, Rosalind.

And these are some of the gals. Front to back- Juliet, Hagar, Tamar, and Ophelia, with a two year old in the background, Amelia.

Rue, another Aravis yearling, sniffs noses with papa.

My light was fading in these pictures, so I'll try to get some nice ones in the sunshine sometime soon, but that gives some pictures of my new gals!

Monday, August 3, 2009

We sent in blood work several days ago on all the goats and sheep. Everyone came back OPP and CAE negative! Praise God! Also just received a fax from Gene Check on my two rams for their Scrapie Resistance tests. Both came out RR! Another wonderful report! I couldn't be more pleased with it all.

I'll be getting new pictures up soon of our new ewes. I have to lovely older girls (six and seven) from KRK. One was actually originally bred and owned by the breeder of our spotted ram Louis, who we purchased seven years ago. I thought that was kind of fun, because I didn't even know it when I purchased her. She's a very pretty girl, mostly white with dark brown spots. The other is a KRK ewe and is golden brown with very similar markings as my big ewe, Amelia. We are calling them Celia and Rosalind. They've settled in very nicely.

I also have to lovely March ewe lambs from Louise in Dufur Oregon. They are not registered, but very nice, big gals. I'm very pleased with them. They are both red, one very light and one dark and are full sisters from triplets. They have been named Juliet and Ophelia.

We have our fair entries in! We will only be taking Johann, our KRK ram lamb to the Clackamas county fair because of the pinch of getting our registrations back. For the state fair I will be showing five, Johann, two yearling ewes, Rue and Parsley, a Sr. ewe lamb, Dotty, and a ewe lamb, Hagar. I'm pretty excited!

Anyways...that's just a bit of the news. I'll be posting pictures soon. I hope you are all staying cool! We have had a long hot spell here!Bethany

Drowsy Waters

This blog is dedicated to the happenings at Drowsy Waters.

Although there are other animals around the farm, Katahdin Hair Sheep are our main focus. We have been working with these amazing sheep since 1999 and have developed a passion and vision for the breed.

This blog hold stories, updates, and ramblings of the primary flock caretaker on current events in the sheep world to small incidents in the barn.

DW's Lemongrass

Holland Lop Rabbits

We enjoy showing (and sometimes winning) as well as breeding our Hollands. As of 2009 we cut back on showing but still enjoy working with these sweet bunnies.

Besides being excellent show rabbits, Hollands are the perfect pet. We have been really blessed to be working with some of the amazing stock from all the great breeders here on the west coast!

Texas

"I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion."

Alexander the Great

Parsley

"Every boy should have two things: a dog, and a mother willing to let him have one."

Amelia and Vienna

"If you have men who exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men."

St. Francis of Assisi

Hermen

"To err is human- to forgive, canine"

Rebel

"Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends."

Cicero

John 10:11-16

"I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.

As the father knoweth me, even so I know the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep have I which are not of this fold: them also must I bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd."

Class of Jr Ram Lambs

Louis ~ Eight year old RR ram

Holland Babies

Dairy ewe with her triplets.

KRK 977 ~ Johann~ Registered RR yearling ram.

Twin from a yearling ~ Seven month old ram lamb.

BOB Holland Lop

"Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds." ~Proverbs 27:23~